The utilization of derails in the railroad industry is well known and accepted. Typically, derails are used to prevent railroad equipment, such as a car or a locomotive from passing a certain point. The need for protecting a certain point from passage by equipment is created under a number of circumstances. A typical circumstance is one wherein workmen are working a car which is positioned at a given track. The requirement of safety and prevention of accidental injury to workmen is paramount. A typical and accepted method of prevention of movement of a car being repaired is to position a derail on the track with the car. Typically, a blue flag is positioned on the track to serve notice that entry of railroad equipment upon the track is prohibited. However, to protect against a failure to observe the blue flag, a derail is mounted on a rail which causes a car or locomotive to be displaced from the track so that it does not engage the protected car.
Derails are well known in the railroad art. It is desirable to provide a lightweight derail which may be moved by a single workman. An example of a known derail is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,105,906, issued Aug. 22, 2000, to Pease, et al. It is particularly advantageous for a derail to not only be moved by a single workman, but it is also advantageous for the derail to be installed by a single workman without the need for special tools. Thus, the installation of the derail is simplified resulting in improvement of the efficiency of the installation.
A derail must have a low profile so that it is not engaged by a track clearing equipment on a locomotive and pushed along the rail thereby failing to accomplish its basic purpose of stopping movement of a locomotive past a given point.
It is further necessary to provide a derail which will make solid contact with a tie thereby preventing movement of the derail along a rail.